


Ice and Snow

by 221b_ee



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018), Snedronningen | The Snow Queen - Hans Christian Andersen
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, F/F, Fairy Tale Retellings, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25324036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/221b_ee/pseuds/221b_ee
Summary: When Adora's best friend Bow is stolen away by the Snow Queen, she sets out to save him. Catradora starting in chapter three.
Relationships: Adora & Bow (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Kudos: 2





	Ice and Snow

**Author's Note:**

> Yes this is 70% Hans Christian Andersen plagiarism. No I will not be taking any criticisms.

Ages and ages ago, but not so long that nobody remembers, in a large town high in the north there lived a boy called Bow and a girl called Adora. Living in town they had not room for a garden, but rather than be satisfied with a few flowerpots, their parents instead came together to build a small bridge from the upper-floor windows of one house to the other, over the street; and it was here that they filled with dirt and careful seeds, and here that the children grew up playing. 

They were not brother and sister, but they loved each other as if they were so, and passed hours and hours together in the sun together, having adventures beyond description in their 15 square feet of garden, and carefully tending their roses. 

In the winter, of course, it was too cold to play outside, and besides the walkway would be covered in ice, which made them liable to slip and fall off the edge and their parents liable to ban them from going out just in case. Instead they passed their time together inside, telling each other stories they made up and, if they were lucky, listening to the ones Adora’s grandmother told. 

“See there the white bees swarming,” she said one day when it was snowing. 

“Do they have a queen, like real bees?” asked Adora. 

“Of course,” said the grandmother. “She is flying there where the swarm is thickest. She is the largest of them all, and never remains on the earth, but flies up to the dark clouds. Often at midnight she flies through the streets of the town, and looks in at the windows, then the ice freezes on the panes into wonderful shapes, that look like flowers and castles.” 

“She can’t come in through the windows, though, can she?” asked Bow, who was unconvinced. “I mean, it doesn’t snow inside.” 

“Let her,” Adora scoffed. “She’s all made of ice - if she came inside I would push her onto the stove and she would melt!” 

Then they laughed, and their games all that evening were about the Snow Queen, and their great bravery in destroying her and bringing back summer. 

The next day it was snowing too, even harder than the day before, and Bow had to work hard to convince his parents to allow him to just cross the street to reach Adora’s house. Eventually, however, he prevailed, and pressed through the wind and up the stairs into Adora’s attic. By the window sat the rose he had brought inside, determined that not all of them should die in the cold; he was pleased to see that it was doing well. Adora bent over the stove under her grandmother’s watchful eye, a pair of tongs in her hand. 

“What’s that?” he asked, shaking the snow out of his hair and dropping his coat in a corner. 

“A penny,” she said. “I’m warming it up to melt the ice off the window.” Carefully, she picked up the penny with the tongs and pressed it against the glass panes. When she removed it, there was a round little peephole through the opaqueness of the frost through which they could see outside. 

The wind was whipping the snow about wildly, and they could hardly see three feet into the air. Bow put his eye right up to the glass, trying to get a better look. Then, in the swarm of flakes, he saw her - the figure of a woman, dressed in garments of white gauze, which looked like millions of starry snowflakes linked together. She was fair and beautiful, but made of ice—shining and glittering ice. Still she was alive and her eyes sparkled like bright stars, but there was neither peace nor rest in their glance. She nodded towards the window and waved her hand. 

With a crash, the window flew open, and a swirling gust of ice and snow burst into the room. Bow was knocked over by the blast, and knocked his head against the wall, while Adora scrambled to close it up again before the fire in the old wooden stove was blown out. The rose in its pot had been knocked over too, and the dirt and shards of the pot lay scattered across the floor. The rose itself was still looked alright, however, if a little disgruntled. 

Finally she managed to lock it. 

“Oh no, our rose!” she exclaimed when she saw the carnage. Bow groaned. “Are you alright?” 

“I think I got some ice in my eye… and maybe in my heart, too,” he said. “It feels like I’ve been stabbed.” 

“That sucks,” said Adora. “Here, sit and hold this for a second while I clean up.” She handed him the rose. 

Bow took it, and then frowned. “Why would I hold this ugly thing?” he said. 

“What are you talking about?” said Adora. “You said it was beautiful yesterday.” 

“What, this?” he scoffed. “It’s crooked and worm-eaten. You aren’t doing a good enough job of taking care of it.” And suddenly he ripped all the petals off and stomped on it. Laughing, he stood up and grabbed his coat and ran back home. 

Adora was speechless with anger and hurt. 

“You know what happened,” said the grandmother from her corner by the stove, who had been so quiet Adora had almost forgotten she was there. 

“What happened?” said Adora, who didn’t know. 

“The Snow Queen. She heard him laughing at her last night and sent her ice to pierce his heart to make it cold and cruel, and his eye so that he can no longer see beauty - only ugliness.” 

“Then I guess I’ll have to melt it,” she said determinedly. The grandmother raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. 

The next day the snow had stopped, and Bow appeared outside in thick gloves and a heavy coat. He called up the stairs to Adora to inform her that he was going to the town square with his sledge to ride with the other children of the town, and then left, ignoring her call to wait for her. 

In the great square, the boldest among the boys would often tie their sledges to the country people’s carts, and speed along with them a good way. While they were all amusing themselves, and Bow with them, one such great sledge came by. It was painted white all over, and in it sat a person wrapped in a rough white fur, and wearing a white cap. The sledge drove twice round the square, and Bow fastened his own little sledge to it, so that when it went away, he followed with it. It went faster and faster right through the next street, and then the person who drove turned round and nodded pleasantly to Bow, just as if they were acquainted with each other, but whenever Bow wished to loosen his little sledge the driver nodded again as though to suggest that the best part of the ride was still coming, so Bow sat still, even as they drove out through the town gate. 

Then the snow began to fall so heavily that he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face, but still they drove on. Bow began to be afraid then, and he suddenly loosened the cord so that the large sled might go on without him, but it was of no use, his little carriage held fast, and away they went like the wind. He called out for help, but nobody heard him, or at least nobody answered, while the snow beat upon him, and the sledge flew onwards. Every now and then it gave a jump as if it were going over hedges and ditches. 

The snow-flakes became larger and larger, till they appeared like great white chickens. All at once the great sledge stopped, and the person who had driven it rose up. The fur and the cap, which were made entirely of snow, fell off, and he saw a lady, tall and white as ice - it was the Snow Queen.

“We have driven well,” said she, “but why do you tremble? here, creep into my warm fur.” Then she seated him beside her in the sledge, and as she wrapped the fur round him he felt as if he were sinking into a snow drift. 

“Are you still cold?” she asked, and she kissed him on the forehead. The kiss was colder than ice; it went through him to the very center of his being. He felt as if he were going to die, but only for a moment; then he seemed to feel quite well again, and noticed the cold around him no more.

Bow looked at her, and saw that she was now more beautiful than anything he ever could have imagined. She didn’t seem to be made of ice anymore, as she had before when he had first seen her through the window. In his eyes she was perfect, and he didn’t feel at all afraid. 

He told her he could do mental arithmetic, as far as fractions, and that he knew the number of square miles and the number of inhabitants in the country, and of his already great skill with the bow and arrow he had fashioned himself. The Snow Queen smiled without answering him, as if to say that that was not very much, and Bow was overcome with the desire to learn more and gain her approval. 

She looked round the vast expanse as she flew higher and higher with him upon a black cloud, while the storm blew and howled as if it were singing old songs. They flew over woods and lakes, over sea and land; below them roared the wild wind; the wolves howled and the snow crackled; over them flew the black screaming crows, and above all shone the moon, clear and bright,—and so Bow passed through the long winter’s night, and by day he slept at the feet of the Snow Queen.


End file.
